... reasons to stay alive and healthy for her. These are the reasons that the tone in The Scarlet Letter was generally positive and optimistic. Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter in third person, but being as Hester is the main character, he tells the story through her point of view and her standpoint on the situation. He also uses a lot of symbolism. For example, the character Pearl was mostly all symbolism. Pearl is a symbol ... of her parents' sin, her parents' love, their passion, and their crime. Hawthorne carried the ... ...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... overcome them? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Arthur Dimmesdale, and old minister, deals with the pain caused by his sin and dies in the end. Throughout the story Dimmesdale wants to get reed of the pain and misery caused by his sin. He gets reed of the pain by telling everyone about how he sinned with Hester, which takes away the burden on his heart. One major obstacle that ... any more medicine. Dimmesdale earns his freedom form his sin and dies a happy death, in the end. 2.b. What does Hester believe in? What is he willing to fight for? What is she willing to fight again...

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• Grade Level: High School

Scarlet Letter Essay Guilt in The Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter guilt and its effects are a constant theme. The story is based on the results of guilt as an effect of sin. The first character who is exposed to this guilt is Hester, who struggles more openly with this problem. On the other hand the Reverend Dimmesdale suffers alone with a searing guilt which ultimately leads to his demise. Hester is the most immediately ... affected by guilt, which is openly shown to the public by the scarlet letter, that she bears on her clothing. Another visible sign of her...

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10.09.01 Scarlet Letter Essay Guilt in The Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter guilt and its effects are a constant theme. The story is based on the results of guilt as an effect of sin. The first character who is exposed to this guilt is Hester, who struggles more openly with this problem. On the other hand the Reverend Dimmesdale suffers alone with a searing guilt which ultimately leads ... to his demise. Hester is the ... most immediately affected by guilt, which is openly shown to the public by the scarlet letter, that she bears on her clothing. Another visib...

• Word Count: 917
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• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter is a story that shows a love that cannot be. "Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!" This quotation is how I see the love that cannot be. The sunshine is the love of a man (Arthur ... Dimmesdale) and it does just what Pearl says - it runs and hides itself from the scarlet letter. This love must be hidden because of practical ... . He knows about his wife and Arthur and h...

• Word Count: 381
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... out during daylight. Wearing her sin on her chest caused her to be isolated by the townspeople. They are all hypocrites for being the same people who go to church weekly repenting their sins. Hawthorne uses many symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses the colors red, black, and white to represent Hester's emotions and the emotions of those around her. The most frequently used color symbol by ... purity. Pearl, who has not committed any great sins nor does he hold herself back from anything, is always portrayed with the light shining on her. When Hester removes her scarlet le...

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... a bold statement of who she was and what she believed in the way she carried herself in front of the townspeople, in the way she created the Scarlet Letter with such striking colors and in the way she stood fearlessly before the crowd on the scaffold. Because this punishment separated her from society and the townspeople who were once her friends, Hester is constrained to living a ... life alone with her daughter Pearl on the outskirts of town. Once an impetuous, ... ." Hester's very sense of self was coupled with the Scarlet Letter and everything that it represented, which, for her, in...

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... when you are in the forest, you are with the Indians, who are "possessed by the devil." The forest was viewed that way because in the early days, Indians used to roam and practice their "magic" there. That view is not very different from Nathaniel Hawthorne's view on the forest in The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter does not see the forest in such a grim light as does The Crucible, but it ... does see the forest as a place ... where you express your true self, outside the boundaries of society. The forest is the first place that Hester and Dimmesdale hold hands in public. So ... ...

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... his breast and struggles to avoid directly answering the questions Chillingworth poses. The two men are interrupted by Pearl and Hester walking through the cemetery outside. Pearl is jumping from gravestone to gravestone, and finally starts dancing upon a large, flat stone. When Hester tries to make her stop, she takes several burrs and arranges them on the scarlet letter, to which they stick. Chillingworth observes that ... Pearl has no "discoverable principle of being" since she disregards all human ordinances and opinions. Dimmesdale then remarks that Pearl embodies "the freedom of a ...

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... grows up into a capricious, precocious, and very observant child. Pearl delights in the scarlet letter and enjoys emphasizing the symbol on her mother's breast. In fact, it is said that when Pearl was a baby, the first feature she noticed about her mother was the scarlet letter on her breast. Pearl is a symbol in the story; she is Hester's salvation, pride, and joy, and also acts as ... eyeing her joyful parents with suspicion. The little girl makes her mother to put the scarlet letter on and put her hair up again before she will cross the riverbank and come to Hester. Afterward, Pearl k...

• Word Count: 3653
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... reasonable and correct to the teacher? Similar to the Scarlet Letter, it falls to the same, how do we know if a person is the most or the least moral? Everyone's morals are different, it is not based on religion, but on what the people believes in and whether he or she follows it righteously or not. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the Scarlet Letter is forced to wear the letter A on her bosom for committing ... adultery with another man and doesn't confess the name. "On the ... her own morals, she cares for others more than herself. She rather suffers than reveal Dimmesdale, saving hi...

• Word Count: 833
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... , we see that Hester is a young and beautiful woman who has brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. The scaffold is an unpleasant punishment to bear; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her newborn child, Pearl, named because ... of her extreme value to her mother. In the middle of the faces in the crowd, Hester sees the face of a man she once was ... ...

• Word Count: 461
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... to take on Satan's character as well. The Puritans also wrongly took authoritative action against Hester. It was not their duty to punish Hester for her sin. When speaking of the scarlet letter, Hester says, "It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge"(176). She goes on to say that if her sentence to wear the scarlet letter was over, the letter would disappear naturally ... . It is God's duty to manage the sins of people and not the magistrates of the government. Although the scarlet letter may not be the sentence of God, it does ... help Pearl redeem her soul...

• Word Count: 942
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... source of torment. The vagueness of the symbol, however, allows its meaning to evolve as the novel progresses, thus "the scarlet letter had not done its office" (Hawthorne 160). Later on, the letter comes to stand for "Able," as Hester is "Able" to Talbert 5 overcome hardship, Talbert 5 live through the shame, and thrive in the hypocritical Puritan society. Towards the end of her life, the letter grows to mean "Angel", and "the scarlet letter ceased to be ... a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness"(Hawthorne ... ...

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... the public's humiliation, Hester also receives the punishment of wearing a red scarlet letter A on her chest, which stands for adultery. As beautiful as this symbol is, it "was red-hot with infernal fire" (Hawthorne 82). The letter not only symbolizes the humiliation of the public, but also the deep burn that guilt evokes. The children in the village are taught to look at the woman who bears the scarlet letter "as the figure, the body, the ... of her mother. As she grows, her personality changes in the reader's mind to be pure because of her amiable nature. Pearl symbolizes the scarlet ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... society. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with themselves and trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with their actions. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter," he shows the lasting effect that adultery has on Chillingworth Dimmesdale, and Hester. Roger Chillingworth's first reaction to the crime of adultery committed by Hester is one of shock, but he quickly suppresses it. This ... has a profound effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet letter when she first comes out of prison. "It had the effect of a spell, takin...

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... hide. Whenever she faces these people she feels she can detect a certain reaction to the sight of the Scarlet Letter that betrays a sense of guilt. Feeling such guilt as this, Arthur Dimmesdale goes to stand in shame on the platform one night. In the gloomy night sky a "meteor shower in the shape of an A" mysteriously appears. This supernatural phenomenon gives Arthur a sense of ... are used to create a mysterious atmosphere through the story. Finally, intuition is also used to add romanticism to this tragic novel. Pearl, is constantly questioning the meaning of the scarlet letter "A" on...

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... Sin In The Scarlet Letter It is a fact that in time, we all have committed sins. The severity of the punishment is very difficult to agree on though. Some people feel that sinners should be punished severely no matter how little the sin was. Many other people feel that a person's punishment should be based on how severe the sin was. However, what many people overlook is that people have ... committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. The Scarlet Letter is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne which revolves around ... the theme of sin. Hester P...

• Word Count: 512
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Chillingworth finds Dimmesdale and touches his heart, feeling the burden on his heart, the scarlet letter. From that point in the story on, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with ruining Dimmesdale's life, slowly breaking him down emotionally. He admits that he wronged Hester by thinking he could keep her happy, but still seeks the revenge which he has no motive for. The adage "the Black Man- fits Chillingworth's new personality well. At ... back in public, yet when in the forest, she feels free enough to recognize the scarlet letter's role in her life and is not afraid to hate Dimmesdale....

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... which in fact are sinners but not the most severe of the novel. During The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne, "a young women who has born herself an illegitimate child and believes herself to be a widow"(Darrel 1) moves to Boston, New England from Europe in 1642 to start a new life. Because of Hester's adultery she is sentenced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest which "is made not ... because she believes that if she keeps the "A" on she will serve her punishment on earth so she can be forgiven in heaven. Another reason Hester's sin is not the greatest is because she is sorry for her actions. ...

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... . Symbols Wild Rose Bush: Located just outside the prison door, it is the only sign of life near the prison, and has a single red blossom on it.The rose may serve, let us hope, to symbolise some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow?.p.46 The Scarlet Letter: A small piece of red cloth, with a capital ... A embroidered in gold on it. Made by Hester Prynne while in the jail cell where she went to give birth to her bastard child. This item was ... worn by Hester Prynne, as punishment for her crime of adul...

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... pays heavily by keeping a sin hidden from God; only in confession does one find true relief and redemption. The second passage, like the first, revolves around an act of adultery committed by a man well respected in his community. In this excerpt from The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale, standing on a scaffold, reveals before the assembled town people that it was he who impregnated Hester Prynne. When Roger Chillingworth ... , the main antagonist of the novel, tries to stop Dimmesdale from acknowledging Hester and Pearl in the crowd, Dimmesdale says to him, "Methinks thou art too late!...

• Word Count: 587
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... is around every corner. This holds true no matter what time period one examines, as Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates in his book The Scarlet Letter. The novel's main character, Hester Prynne, commits the cardinal sin of adultery and is forced to bear the shame of the scarlet letter. Her sin affects all those around her, but most notably, Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and, of course, Prynne herself ... . Throughout the novel, Hester is ostracized for her sin. One of the more notable examples is Hester's residence in a cottage on the outskirts of the colony. (Hawthorne 81) This d...

• Word Count: 361
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... and fear. Then these poor choices lead to other wrong actions that reflect their guilt. Lack of insight leads people to make bad choices, and there are several examples in the book, The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne and Roger Chillingworth get married even though they knew it was not going to be a truthful love relationship. Back then, women often married for stability, rather than ... as a minister, but he would have lived a better life just like Hester. It is better to tell the truth and admit one's crime earlier like Hester than to hide it until the last minute like Dimmesdale. After...

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... 't realize that part of his sickness was credited to Chillingworth until later. His vigil and meeting with Hester and Pearl in the wee hours of the morning on the scaffold was the turning point of my impression of him. Pearl's role in the story, I felt, was the scarlet letter come to life. This is shown in several ways. She is a product of what Hester's red "A" represents and is ... usually dressed in shades of scarlet. She is described as having elfish qualities about her. Elves are most commonly thought to be mischievous ... are both characteristics of the adultery the scarlet letter ...

• Word Count: 1043
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School